Carry On
by Nix-the-Neko
Summary: Neku, Beat, and Joshua get together to hang out, but it doesn't go exactly as planned. "Fantastic, I've always wanted to play a game against an unstoppable force of nature that borders on Eldritch Abomination." (Platonic friendships all around)


"Don't look, yo…!" Beat said harshly as darkness closed in around them, having heard a loud groan that was suspiciously close behind them. "Whatever you do, don't look!"

Before they'd heard the noise, they'd been wandering the decrepit hallways of a castle, following these tiny splatters of red and trying to figure out what was going on. The castle itself was deadly quiet, the few sounds coming from the odd wind that would blow through every once in awhile. Sometimes, there would be a faint groan in the background, which would cause them to tense up. Other times, there was this barely audible howl.

"I know!" Neku replied, throwing open the door of an old looking wardrobe. There was a loud banging sound on the wooden door that was inches away from them and Neku jumped.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Beat chanted as Neku hurried inside the wardrobe and carefully closed it behind him. Whatever was out there, he didn't want it to find him. Until that point, they hadn't even known that there was anything else there besides them!

It was at this time that Neku asked himself why in the world he was even in this situation. He hid away his lantern too, not wanting the smallest chance at being spotted. Now, in almost complete darkness, Neku held his breath while simultaneously trying to calm his pounding heart. Why was he even here? Why was he in this damned castle, just _why_?

"Honestly… it's just a video game…" Joshua muttered behind them in an oddly quiet voice. Neither Neku nor Beat was about to turn to check on him, though. Their eyes were just about glued to the screen.

Joshua hadn't been as much of an ass as he usually was since Beat had popped the disc into Neku's computer. It was strange, since Neku would have thought that he'd be full of comments about how stupid the game was, or how pointless and predictable the jump scares were.

However, there hadn't been any jump scares until now, and they were thirty minutes into the god-forsaken game! The droning music that apparently meant that something was lurking was playing loudly through the speakers, setting Neku on the edge of his seat.

Neku bit his lip, hearing the door finally splinter and break from beyond his hiding space. He had half a mind to simply push Joshua into his chair and tell him that it was his turn. But that would sound cowardly, so Neku intended to get at least twenty minutes past this point, and then force Joshua to play.

"Open the door," Beat ordered. "I wanna see the monster."

"No way," Neku responded, holding the keyboard a little closer to himself. "I don't want to be spotted."

"Jus' a peak, yo," Beat said, leaning forward to take the keyboard from him.

Neku momentarily panicked, imagining Beat accidently jerking the controls too hard and getting him killed. He hastily replied with, "Okay, okay! Fine."

Neku leaned over, not failing to notice that Beat _and_ Joshua were leaning over him to try and get a good look as well. He maneuvered the mouse to grab the handle and clicked, dragging it to open the door. To his surprise, there was nothing there. The door had a large, jagged hole in it, but everything else seemed undisturbed.

"What…?" Beat said, staring at the screen with a look that was stuck between disappointment and disbelief. Neku opened the broken door, wincing at the creaking sound it made.

"It looks like our lovely soundtrack hasn't stopped," Joshua added, folding his arms over the top of Neku's chair and leaning on it.

"No, really?" Neku replied under his breath. Neku knew where they needed to go, but the problem was getting there. In his blind fear at 'HOLY SHIT SOMETHING IS HAPPENING _SOMETHING_ IS THERE!' Neku had run into the first room that he'd seen and closed himself up in it. Sure, the thing was gone (whatever it was), but Neku had no idea where they were supposed to be going. From the looks of it, Beat also hadn't a clue.

"The Cellar Archives, Neku," Joshua supplied, unhelpfully. "And you missed a jar of oil earlier."

"Where was it?" Neku asked, turning to give Joshua an annoyed look. There was that _special_ personality of his coming back.

"It was back in that room you hid in. It was right next to a note on the table. There was also a tinderbox in the adjacent room. Really, Neku, I'm surprised that you missed them all. Do you need a break?"

"Fine, if you're so observant, how about you play?" Neku said, taking advantage of the opening that Joshua had given him. He got up and pushed his chair aside, and then started pulling Joshua's forward.

"Oh, no, no! I couldn't possibly take all this gameplay from you," Joshua replied, crossing his arms.

"What, you scared or somethin'?" Beat snorted. Joshua turned narrowed his eyes at Beat.

"I'm not afraid, I simply don't—"

Whatever Joshua didn't want to do, he was interrupted by a loud groan from the speakers and the sound of something that clearly wasn't human growling behind him. The three boys tensed up, staring at the computer screen with widened eyes.

Right as Beat shouted an "OH FUCK!" Joshua reached forward and grabbed the mouse and keyboard, pulling it to him and beginning to sprint down the winding hallways.

Joshua ran all the way back to the room Neku had been in earlier and slammed the broken door, despite Beat's insistence that it wouldn't hold back the monster. Joshua didn't answer him as he hopped back into the wardrobe and turned off the lantern. He managed to close himself into the wardrobe right as the broken door exploded.

None of the three boys were breathing, staring at the monitor with bug-like eyes as a low moan echoed throughout the room. The music droned on and, finally, Joshua made a move to open the door.

"What are you doing?" Neku hissed.

"I'm going to get a nice look at our friend," Joshua answered, slowly opening the door. They were greeted with the sight of nothing. There was nothing in the room. The three boys sat in silence before Beat broke it.

"Whaaaattt?!" Beat groaned and slumped forward and rested his head on the table the computer was on. "You gotta be kiddin' me!"

"What the hell was chasing us?" Neku asked, sighing and leaning back in his chair. "Don't tell me it was that "Shadow" thing the game's been talking about…"

"It probably was," Joshua said. "Fantastic, I've always wanted to play a game against an unstoppable force of nature that borders on Eldritch Abomination."

"Whatever, I'm going to get something to eat," Neku muttered and got up. He turned around, only to freeze when he saw what lay before him; a dark hallway that led all the way to the kitchen. For a split second, Neku was frozen in what amounted to absolute terror. He didn't remember turning off the lights!

Of course, this went away rather quickly. Neku wasn't afraid of the dark. The game he had just been playing with his friends had only unnerved him. He knew for a fact that there was nothing lurking in the shadows of his hallway. But, then again, fear was not a rational thing.

"Neku, are you all right?" Joshua asked, sounding amused, and Neku heard him turn around to look.

"Obviously," Neku replied bluntly. "I'm just trying to figure out what I want."

"Bring me back some Ramune, a'ight?" Beat said, grinning at Neku.

"I would like Super Otoro from the Aomori Prefecture, a mango from the Miyasaki Prefecture, and muskmelon, if you would," Joshua smiled at Neku, looking innocent, obviously trying for the "sweet cherub" angle. The look made Neku want to barf.

"Yeah, right, I'll bring you back the Pegreso store while I'm at it." Neku rolled his eyes and went to travel down the dark hallway, momentarily forgetting his fears.

"You spoil me so," Joshua practically cooed. After that, Neku began trying to tune out what they were saying. A resounding "Bwaaaah!" he couldn't help but hear meant that Joshua had started redirecting his "assitude" (as Eri called it) at Beat. He was probably pretending to flirt with him (like he did with everyone) and Neku stopped this train of thought immediately.

He didn't want to think of Joshua flirting any more than he had to, which was too much of the time in his opinion.

Neku idly flicked on the lights and proceeded to rummage through his fridge for Beat's Ramune and anything that Joshua would find acceptable. Joshua could be such a picky eater sometimes (it was almost a sin to hate Mr. H's minestrone). It suddenly dawned on Neku that he shouldn't let Beat have any form of liquid or food near his computer, lest some accident happen that would cost a great deal of yen to fix.

"Hey!" Neku called into the other room, "Food break! I don't want any of you getting food near my computer."

"Good call, Neku," Joshua answered as he traipsed his way into the kitchen. "You don't want to endanger that 'high-quality' computer of yours."

This was, of course, a jab, seeing as Neku's computer wasn't high-quality at all. In fact, the graphics card barely allowed it to run that game Beat had brought smoothly. It was a little glitchy at times, but acceptable.

See, despite winning the Reaper's Game three times, Neku didn't have much yen to his name. All the yen that he'd earned in the Reaper's Game had been gone when he'd been revived. Joshua had explained that it was to keep the non-Players from getting suspicious about the sudden influx of money from nowhere. All the clothes he'd bought had also been gone—again, to keep the continuity of the world in order—which had bothered Neku at first. However, he'd grown to accept it. He still had the pins, but he didn't wear them. It wasn't like anyone noticed pins (unless they were CAT's or dead kids were tasked with making them popular).

He still lived with his parents (he was only sixteen, give him a break) in their rather small house. Neku was lucky to have a computer in his room, which was where they were. There were three doors down the hallway from his room. One led to his parents' room; the other led to the only bathroom, and the door at the end of the hall led to a small kitchen/dining room. In the kitchen, there was a doorway that led to the front room, and another that led to the back storage room.

"After all," Joshua continued, "that boor could really make a mess of things."

"Hey! I ain't nothin' like that!" Beat objected from the doorway, scowling at the ash-blond.

"Actually, I believe you fit the description of 'person with rude and clumsy manners" quite nicely," Joshua retorted, crossing his arms and smirking. Beat shook his head vigorously at the insult and glared.

"Whatever, man. I ain't no pig."

Joshua sighed and massaged his temples as though Beat's presence was giving him a migraine. This was possible: Joshua had little tolerance for the unintelligent.

"Anyway," Neku started, trying to intervene before a fight actually started, "I have some insta-noodles, so…"

"Hell yeah!" Beat shouted, storming over to Neku's pantry, argument with Joshua seemingly forgotten.

"Lovely," Joshua smirked. He walked over to Neku's dinner table and sat down, clearly making himself comfortable. "Neku, if you would please use your marvelous culinary skills to serve us your instant ramen?"

Pleased that he actually had something that everyone—including himself—liked, Neku ignored Joshua's comment and got to preparing the noodles. They were his guests, technically. Glancing at the time, Neku couldn't help but do a double take. Holy shit, his parents were out late! No wonder it was so dark out. Shaking his head, Neku sighed and got to work (he didn't even want to think about what his parents might be doing this late at night).

Although the "instant" part of "instant-noodles" was a gross exaggeration, it still didn't take much time for them to finish cooking. Soon, there were three bowls of steaming noodles sitting in front of Joshua, Beat, and Neku.

"Thanks for the food, man!" Beat grinned before digging in.

"Compliments to the chief," Joshua giggled before doing the same.

"Thanks, guys," Neku replied. Together, the three of them ate in silence before there was the sound of a car pulling into the driveway. Joshua looked up at the sound and sighed.

"Looks like our time alone is at an—" Joshua cut himself off and frowned before turning to look at Neku. "You _did_ lock the door, right?"

"Of course I did." Neku raised an eyebrow at Joshua. "I'm not an idiot."

"Good. It looks like we're about to receive a few rather… unwelcome visitors…"

"What?" Neku turned to look at Joshua, quickly standing up to go to look out the window. Neku heard Beat get to his feet as well, only to be tugged back down by Joshua.

"What the hell, yo? I jus' wanted to—"

"Quiet!" Neku whispered. Beat fell silent and turned to look at Neku questioningly. Then, in the midst of the silence, the three boys could hear a soft jingling as the lock within Neku's front door moved. Neku's breath caught in his chest, and for a second, he couldn't help but imagine someone, someone with a _gun_, breaking in and _shooting_ him, just running up with a crazed look in their eyes, a deranged _smile_, pulling the trigger—

Suddenly, he was being pushed towards the back room. Neku jerked wildly out of instinct and he felt someone reel back as his hand struck. Neku turned to see Joshua hunched over and holding his nose, an annoyed look on his face.

"Neku, you can have your post-traumatic flashbacks later, we need to hide _now_." Joshua wiped his nose and Neku noticed a few flecks of blood on his arm. "Beat, be a dear and call the police in the other room. Take Neku with you, if you would."

Beat opened his mouth to object, not wanting to listen to Joshua, but was cut off as a loud click echoed throughout the house: the sound of the lock finally giving way. It sounded like the safety of a gun being removed to Neku.

At that point, Beat burst into action, grabbing Neku and strong-arming him into the back room. Neku thrashed against him instinctively for a few seconds before stopping. Only after they had successfully taken refuge in the back room did Neku notice that Joshua wasn't there. He looked around frantically and saw that Beat had taken his phone out.

He heard the front door slowly creak open and a voice say, "Hey, there's a kid in here…"

"Excellent observation," Neku heard Joshua say. "Now, if you don't mind, I'd like you to excuse yourself and leave me alone."

"Looks like a smart-azz.." Another guy droned. Neku could hear Beat whispering into the phone beside him.

"We should teach 'em a lesson…" slurred the first guy. With a start, Neku realized that the two guys were both drunk. That was bad, very bad.

"I'll give you five minutes to give us all of your valuables," said a third guy, his voice completely clear.That was probably the guy who'd picked the lock. "You see, my friends here aren't thinking straight. Who knows what they'll do. But, if you give me some of your stuff, I'm sure they can be convinced leave."

Then, there was the sound of a gun cocking and Neku froze. Someone had a gun; someone had a gun, _who had the gun_?

"I see…" Neku heard Joshua say carefully. "Since you've asked so nicely, I'll see what I can do for you."

"You better!" shouted one of the drunks. Neku heard the other one laugh. "You lucky we're so nice..!"

"Quiet!" the leader snapped. "Kid, get a move on. We're waiting and very impatient… Wait, why're there three bowls of ramen here?"

Neku's pulse sped up rapidly at hearing that and he heard Beat moving around behind him. Was he moving boxes? Neku spun around to glare at him (and hopefully beam the message that now _was not the time to be moving things around_ directly into Beat's brain) only to see that there was now a small space between the boxes.

Before he could open his mouth, Beat grabbed him by the arm and shoved him behind the boxes. Neku couldn't hear what Joshua was saying anymore, but he did hear the drunks' leader start to walk over to the storage room door. He saw Beat creep up to the door and lean against the wall, getting ready to ambush the first person who came in.

Desperate now, Neku reached over and practically ripped open the nearest box, searching for a weapon. He found an old picture frame inside of it from some time ago. The edges of it weren't sharp, but Neku wouldn't hesitate to bash anyone who came in with it. It could still do a lot of damage. Of course, to do that, he'd have to get in close, and that would be hard considering that one of them had a gun, gun, _gun._

Suddenly, the footfalls stopped and Neku heard the leader say, loud and clear, "What did you say, you little shit?"

More words that Neku couldn't make out at all.

"You… that's it!"

_Bang!_

The sound of a gunshot blasted through the house and Neku felt like his blood had completely frozen over. He almost dropped his picture frame, but he had to hold onto it because it was his only weapon, his only defense, and he wasn't about to let Beat stand up there alone. Realizing that he'd ducked down behind the boxes when he'd heard the shot, Neku quickly got up and stood on the other side of the door from Beat.

He wasn't some scared little kid who had to hide behind boxes while his friends put themselves in danger. Neku looked across to try and reassure Beat, only to see him caught between reaching for the door handle, pulling back and then reaching out again.

A deadly quiet had fallen over the entire house and Neku swore he could hear his blood rushing beneath his skin. He reached out and pushed Beat's hand away from the door and shook his head. Neku knew that Joshua wasn't allowed to use his powers to interfere with those on the Realground, so there wasn't a chance that he could've just stopped the bullets like he had at… at the Udagawa Mural… Was he okay? Neku honestly hoped that he was, although he was becoming increasingly worried for the Composer. Why wasn't he saying anything?

Neku closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, releasing the air quietly through his nose. There was no need to worry about Joshua; it would be fine. It always was, in the very, very end. He opened his eyes to look at Beat—who was biting his lip, his worry evident all over his face.

Suddenly, the door swung open. Neku yelled, swung his picture frame, and spiked the guy right in the face. The guy let out a loud shout and Beat shoved his way out from behind the door, leveling a powerful punch into the man's face. It connected, and Neku—recalling the Lance Lunge psych—dashed forward and delivered a lightning-fast sucker punch. He was acutely aware of Beat to the side of him, jumping the second guy and knocking him into the third.

While Neku's guy was doubled over and gasping for air, Neku roughly pushed him back into Beat's fist. Beat slammed his fist into the back of the guy's head and the guy's eyes went wide for a second before he doubled over, out cold.

The man Beat had jumped suddenly took a flying leap and tackled Beat down. Beat hit the ground hard, giving a loud yell, and tried to elbow the man off. Neku, coming to assist Beat, saw that the man had grabbed a knife off the counter rack and was about to plunge it into Beat's back. With a cry of his own, Neku slammed into the man like a wrestler and managed to pin his arms down.

Neku spotted that the knife was already covered in blood. His eyes went wide. The man struggled beneath him and Neku brought his head forward quickly, head-butting the man. Stars filled Neku's vision, but he refused to let go. He managed to rip the knife out of the man's hands, and backed off just as Beat kicked the man. The man groaned loudly and grabbed Beat's leg, jerking it and causing the blond to fall down onto his back. Beat howled in pain when he tried catching himself on his arm and started kicking the man. Neku, still gripping the bloody knife in his hand, lashed out with it and left a long laceration on the man's arm. The man cried out and let go of Beat, covering his arm. Beat scrambled to his feet and backed away from the man. There was blood on the floor from the huge cut the man had left on Beat's arm.

"Freeze!" shouted the last robber, picking himself off the floor. Both Neku and Beat turned to look at him and froze. There was a gleaming metal gun in his hands.

And then it wasn't the robber standing there, but Joshua, and they were at the Udagawa Mural. Joshua was smiling that deranged smile and pointing a gun at his head and looking so _damned proud of himself_! Neku wanted to run but he couldn't and he could see Joshua's fingers tightening around the trigger, starting to count down from ten, nine, eight—

_CRASH!_

Neku immediately came back to reality at the loud sound of something breaking into little pieces and saw Joshua—who looked absolutely livid—standing there, cell phone in hand. The man with the gun was groaning and lying under a broken chair, the fragments of it surrounding him.

Joshua looked over the scene, not seeming to notice the blood seeping from a wound in his stomach. The scene was broken when a loud siren blared and, moments later, two older men with guns burst into the room. All Neku could see was the guns that they were holding and waving around the room. Beat was suddenly in front of Neku and shaking him, then leading him over toward the people with the guns.

With a jolt, Neku realized that they were police officersand weren't going to shoot him, that he could trust them. The cops took the two of them—Joshua had disappeared (probably back to the UG)—outside and called the ambulance to get Beat to the hospital. Then, they called Neku's and Beat's parents to explain the situation. It all passed in a blur for Neku. He was incredibly lucky that he hadn't gotten hurt.

Neku had insisted on riding with Beat to the hospital, and they had agreed. They wanted to check him for a concussion—he had apparently gotten a nasty bump on his head when he'd smashed it against the robber. The robbers themselves had been piled into a different ambulance and shipped off. Neku didn't really care who they were, or where they were going, as long as it wasn't anywhere near him.

Neither Neku nor Beat saw Joshua until they had reached the hospital. Neku had just gotten the okay to wait with Beat after they'd stitched up Beat's arm.

"Neku, Beat," Joshua said, appearing in front of them a moment later.

"Yo, Josh," Beat waved to himfrom his hospital bed. "You all right?"

"Of course I am," Joshua murmured**,** and walked to sit down next to Neku. Neku didn't say anything. He couldn't. He wanted to ask if Joshua was okay, if Beat was okay. Hell, he wanted to know if _he _was okay. It was sad, but he was used to being attacked. The Game had done that to him.However, there was something about being attacked in his own home that made him want to run into his mother's arms and stay there.

But his mother wasn't here yet, and Neku's pride wouldn't him let do such a thing in front of his friends anyway.

"Neku? Neku…"

Neku looked up sharply and realized that Joshua had been waving a hand in front of his face. He turned to face Joshua with a questioning look.

"Are _you_ okay, Neku?"

Was he? He supposed that things could be a lot worse, and that he shouldn't try to imagine what would have happened if Joshua hadn't been there to help out, if he'd been alone that night. It had started out so innocently, too! But that was how these things always started. Playing videos with friends, going to meet someone at Udagawa…

Now, Joshua was frowning at him, and… was that concern? Beat was looking at him with worry from the bed and Neku suddenly couldn't stand it. Beat was the one who'd gotten hurt. He should be the one getting doted on, not him.

So, Neku looked up and gave a small smile.

He opened his mouth and said "I'm fine."

Because, eventually, he would be.


End file.
